"barbarat" wrote:
comparing my formula to yours, i see that i am unsure of
commas, and )'s. and the rules for what comes first...is
there a rule i could learn, and if so where do i look for it?
meaning, what should i reference in the manual index?

I doubt that your problem is with understanding "commas
and parentheses [and] what comes first". But if that truly
is your problem, the best thing is to rely on the Help text
for each function. I find the "offline" text better than the
online text because of the See Also link. If you agree, click
on Help, then click on Online Content Settings in the Help
window. Uncheck "Content and links from Microsoft Office
Online". After clicking Okay, you will have to exit and
re-enter Excel to see the effect.

The See Also link might help you with what I suspect is the
real problem: how to know what functions and operators
exist. If you look at the See Also link on the Help text for
the "IF worksheet function", you will discover the AND() and
OR() functions, for example. Careful reading of the syntax
and a general knowledge about how function arguments
and expressions work in programming languages will help
you get it right.

Sorry, but I don't know of any other magic way to learn a
"language" -- which Excel expressions are -- other than
finding a good intro book.

the date thing really confuses me.

Yes, it took me some time to remember DATEDIF() myself.
I did not find any Excel documentation. I found it with a
google search.

if i wanted to use numerical, like 01011984 instead of
mm/dd/yyyy, what would i need to change?

I believe I answered that in an earlier posting in this thread.
Look for it. It isn't pretty. Why do you prefer the "numerical"
format? What problem does that solve for you that the
normal format does not?